ingenue

See also: ingénue

English

WOTD – 17 September 2007

Alternative forms

• ingénue

Etymology

Borrowed from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu (“guileless”), originally from the Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑnʒənu/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌænʒeɪˈnjuː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ingenue (plural ingenues)

1. An innocent, unsophisticated, naïve, wholesome girl or young woman.
   • 2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time‎^[1]:

     She was seen as a gifted pop-country ingenue when, in a now infamous moment, Kanye West interrupted Swift onstage at the 2009 VMAs while she was accepting an award. The incident set in motion a chain of events that would shape the next decade of both artists’ lives.

2. (theater, film) A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.

   Hypernym: stock character

   Coordinate terms: girl next door, femme fatale, damsel in distress

   • 2012, Thomas Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969‎^[2], McFarland, →ISBN, page 396:

     The intelligent and talented blonde who was fluent in English, French and Spanish was interested in art and joined a local theater group to work on set designs but wound up on stage playing an ingenue in Liliom and was spotted by director Vincente Minnelli.

3. (rare) Misspelling of ingenu.
   • 1951 June 11, Harold L. Ickes, “Acheson, Political Ingenue”, in The New Republic, volume 124, number 24, page 17:

     Mr. Acheson's failure as Secretary of State ... has been an inability to understand people or to be understood by them.

   • 2002 Spring, Joshua David Gonsalves, “What Makes Lord Byron Go? Strong Determinations-Public/Private-of Imperial Errancy”, in Studies in Romanticism, volume 41, number 1, Psychoanalytic, page 40fn:

     I cannot resist citing, slightly out of context, another bit of Baudelaire: "Satan s'est fait ingénu" (Satan has made himself into an ingenue [Oeuvres Completes 640])

   • 2006 September, Kevin McFadden, “It's a Cue, the Name”, in Poetry, volume 188, number 5, page 417:

     America why callow ingenue bile?

Usage notes

The corresponding masculine term, ingenu, is poorly known, and so the feminine term is sometimes used in a gender-neutral or masculine way. (See the 2002 citation, where the explicit masculine French is feminized in English.)

Related terms

• ingenu, ingenuous

Translations

a dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role

• Hungarian: naiva (hu), szende (hu)
• Japanese: アンジェーヌ
• Russian: инженю́ (ru) f (inženjú)

Further reading

• ingénue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• U engine, unigene, genuine, eugenin, Guienne

Italian

Adjective

ingenue f pl

1. feminine plural of ingenuo

Noun

ingenue f

1. plural of ingenua

Anagrams

• genuine, unigene

Latin

Adjective

ingenue

1. vocative masculine singular of ingenuus

References

• “ingenue”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ingenue”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ingenue in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.